Pubdate: Wed, 21 Feb 2001
Source: Albuquerque Tribune (NM)
Copyright: 2001 The Albuquerque Tribune
Contact:  P.O. Drawer T, 7777 Jefferson NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109
Website: http://www.abqtrib.com/
Author: Lowry McAllen, Tribune Reporter

COMMITTEES PASS MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

Seriously ill patients who might benefit from the pain-relieving,
nausea-alleviating effects of marijuana have come a little closer to getting
legal relief at the Legislature.

But a rough road for passage of the measure is expected in the full House
and Senate.

Two committees in the Legislature Tuesday passed a bill that would permit
some use of marijuana for patients -- like those with AIDS and cancer --
that could receive some therapeutic benefit from the drug.

The bill passed the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, with
Democrats giving the necessary votes for passage. Three Democrats voted for
the bill and one voted against. Two Republicans supported it and two were
opposed.

Rep. Joe Thompson, an Albuquerque Republican and the bill's sponsor in the
House, recognized it will be a challenge to convince some legislators who
are undecided on the issue because of "hidden political ramifications" that
might accompany a vote in favor of the bill.

One of those ramifications, in Thompson's view, is the possible perception
that those who vote in favor of the bill could be later portrayed as being
soft on drugs.

Thompson said he doesn't see his bill as part of an effort to decriminalize
drugs in general. "This is so distant from that; I don't see this as drug
policy reform," he said after the bill passed the committee.

Convincing undecided legislators to support this "Compassionate Use Medical
Marijuana Act" will require showing them that it really is about good
medicine, and not about broadening public access to drugs, Thompson said.

Thompson's bill, HB 431, is now scheduled to go to the House Judiciary
Committee for consideration, after which it could go before the full House.

A senator in the Senate Public Affairs Committee that passed an identical
version of the bill said Tuesday night that she was voting to support it
strictly for medical purposes.

Sen. Mary Kay Papen, a Las Cruces Democrat, said she wanted to alleviate the
pain that some patients feel who might be best treated by marijuana.

Members of that committee, the Senate Public Affairs Committee, voted
unanimously to approve the bill.

Sen. Steve Komadina said he hoped the bill was not part of a larger attempt
to legalize marijuana. He voted in favor of the medical marijuana bill.

Komadina, a Corrales Republican and a physician, said he did not want the
medical bill to be the "camel's nose peeking under the tent" -- meaning that
approving the drug for medical use should not be seen as part of a general
push to approve it for non-medical use.

Members of the Senate committee pointed out blurry areas that they expected
to be clarified when the bill -- SB 319 -- goes to the Senate Judiciary
Committee next.

One point of regulation they wanted to know more about was who would be
cultivating the marijuana.

Health Secretary Alex Valdez admitted during the hearing Tuesday night that
the exact producer of the legal marijuana for medical use has not been
defined yet.

"We don't know who is going to be doing the growing and the selling," Valdez
said. That regulatory function is supposed to be tackled by the state Health
Department, as the bill is currently written.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Andrew